3rd Mekong Forum on Water, Food & Energy. Presentation from Sessions 4 & 6: M-POWER Solutions for Mekong Region Governance

1. Structures:
•Study objectives
•Studied areas
•Main findings
•Conclusion and
recommendations
Development Policies for Lake Settlements: Dynamics
of the Water- and Migration-based Local Livelihoods,
Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia
Borin Un

2. Research Objectives
The overarching objective of this study is to
identify how the government’s Lake
development policies impact water- and
migration-based local livelihoods and to
identify what policy gaps and opportunities
for the Lake settlements

3. Studied areas and target villages
Prek Trob in
Aek Phnom
district,
Battambang
Pursat
Phtas Kor in
Kandieng
district
Kampong Thom
Kampongkor
Krom,
Kampong
Svay district

4. Fishery of the management and the around Tonle
ChallengesManagement Policyof fishery Impacts on
Local Livelihoods
Sap
The govt. fishery management policy has not led to sustainable
management, conservation and development of fisheries resources
around TSL.
• Decrease quality of fisheries to serve livelihoods of subsistent
fishers and farmers (food insecurity, decreased income and
increased risks)
• Fishing areas are dominated by illegal fishers( medium scale
fishers)
• There is an increased tension in access to fisheries resources

5. Agriculture management of fishery around Tonle
Challenges of thepolicy, water management, and
the Impacts on Local Livelihoods
Sap
The agriculture and water management policy of the govt. have not
strengthened local livelihoods due to:
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Lack of irrigation,
poor farming techniques due to no extension,
high input cost, low capitals, high interest rate,
low output price due to weak market
land encroachment to due land privatization
inappropriate water investment by private sector,
Tension access to water between large scale and
smallholder farmers
• Increase risks for doing agriculture for smallholder farmers
• Increase debt in farmers due to failure or loss in doing
agriculture

6. Emergence of migration-based livelihoods Tonle
Challenges of the management of fishery around and
governmentSap
migration policy
In the studied villages, there are no concrete
livelihoods development activities to address the
emergence of migration as a multi-local livelihoods
strategy.
The Migration of communities around Tonle Sap Lake
is relatively little known, researched, and considered
by the government policies

7. CONCLUSION
The development policies for the Lake settlements:
•have not resolved vulnerabilities of fishing and farming
livelihoods in studied communities such as fisheries
decline and the impacts of agricultural intensification, soil
degradation, and growing landlessness
•have not empowered local communities to resolve the
tension of fishing-farming livelihoods
•have not measured migration-based local livelihoods
There is still an assumption by the govt. policies that
livelihoods around the Lake could be sustained by a
single source of livelihoods: fishing, farming, or
fishing-farming livelihoods

8. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Integrate policies on agriculture, fisheries, water
management and migration and make it be better
understood and be prioritized as a way to respond to
emergence of multi-local livelihoods driven around Tonle
Sap Lake
• Promote participatory development by integrating the
environmental policies and livelihoods development
policies into the CDP and the CIP.

9. Thank you for
your attention!

10. Thank you for
your attention!